Upgrade

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (More info?)

I have had my phone since last may and i hate it. Can I just go into a
store and buy a new phone at full price and have everything transeferred to
that phone? If I wanted a blackberry and I wanted to upgrade my plan, would
they let me do that or would I be better off adding a line just for the bb?
The cheapest BB online was 299.99 with a 2 year plan, does anyone know what
it would be w/o it?

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (More info?)

Don Udel (ETC) wrote:
> My biggest gripe with Cingular (and the others) is they have no plan
for
> those who want to stay with the provider; but upgrade phones
regularly. I'd
> be happy to trade in some of my Cingular roll over minutes towards a
phone
> upgrade.

One of the great joys of Cingular is that they're all GSM. Go buy
yourself whatever phone you like, whenever you like, and pop your SIM
in. Of course there's no guarantee that every function will operate
properly, and Cingular isn't going to provide tech support for phones
they don't sell, but you're not locked in to a single phone. You'll
also pay full price, but that long contract term is there so Cingular
can recoup the subsidy that made your phone "free" in the first place.

You can upgrade your phone at the "new customer" rate every year or
two. Go to the Cingular website, log into your account, and look for
the "upgrade phone" option. That will tell you when you're eligible for
the subsidized rate (and getting locked into another year or two of
contract).

Buying a second account and letting the first whither away won't help
since they track _you_, not your account number. Try to open a second
account and they'll see you're a current customer. You need to close
your account for 90(?) days before they'll give you the new customer
discounts.

tg.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (More info?)

Thanks for the info. When I checked on my upgrade status (2 yr contract), I
had to be 18-24 months into the contract. Now if Cingular wants you to
upgrade the phone (like when I had a 6340 and they wanted to move me to a
6340i) then no problem.

My thought on the rollover minutes is that they are like frequent flier
miles. Cingular keeps them on the books as a liability (as do airlines with
FF miles, or companies with accrued vacation time). They could recoup their
subsidised rate by reclaiming some rollover minutes from your account.

Don
<tomglaab@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1109190147.958393.17940@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Don Udel (ETC) wrote:
>> My biggest gripe with Cingular (and the others) is they have no plan
> for
>> those who want to stay with the provider; but upgrade phones
> regularly. I'd
>> be happy to trade in some of my Cingular roll over minutes towards a
> phone
>> upgrade.
>
> One of the great joys of Cingular is that they're all GSM. Go buy
> yourself whatever phone you like, whenever you like, and pop your SIM
> in. Of course there's no guarantee that every function will operate
> properly, and Cingular isn't going to provide tech support for phones
> they don't sell, but you're not locked in to a single phone. You'll
> also pay full price, but that long contract term is there so Cingular
> can recoup the subsidy that made your phone "free" in the first place.
>
> You can upgrade your phone at the "new customer" rate every year or
> two. Go to the Cingular website, log into your account, and look for
> the "upgrade phone" option. That will tell you when you're eligible for
> the subsidized rate (and getting locked into another year or two of
> contract).
>
> Buying a second account and letting the first whither away won't help
> since they track _you_, not your account number. Try to open a second
> account and they'll see you're a current customer. You need to close
> your account for 90(?) days before they'll give you the new customer
> discounts.
>
> tg.
>

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (More info?)

ETC - News wrote:
> My thought on the rollover minutes is that they are like frequent
flier
> miles. Cingular keeps them on the books as a liability (as do
airlines with
> FF miles, or companies with accrued vacation time). They could
recoup their
> subsidised rate by reclaiming some rollover minutes from your
account.

The companies are also counting on your not cashing in the
miles/minutes/vacation so the liability expires. By allowing you to use
the minutes to buy a phone the liability is real, and costs the company
money. Don't expect it to happen.

Rollover is a (very effective) gimmick to keep you happy with the
service. Since carriers are losing money with family plans they need to
make it up by selling you more minutes than you need (or keep the pain
tolerable when you go over). That's another reason they're not going to
divert those rollover minutes to cash.

tg.